This invention relates to a machine for the harvesting and chopping-up of maize or similar stalk-type harvests, which draws-in and mows the stalks of the harvest in the upright position and subsequently feeds them to a chaff-blower, feed rollers being provided to feed the cut stalks to the chaff-blower, with which after the mowing the stalks of the harvested material are moved on and in co-operation with guide parts are brought forward in a slanting position in the direction of travel, in which their cut ends are caught in the feed rollers provided in front of the chaff-blower. Such machines are also often called forage harvesters.
The known machines of this kind, irrespective of the drawing-in system which they use or whether they are made for one or more rows, must always travel more or less accurately along the row of stalks and are bound to the distances between rows determined by the sowing. Attempts have already been made on multi-row machines to make the travelling accuracy along the rows less sensitive by the adjustability of the drawing-in elements, or to facilitate the work of the driver by incorporating automatic steering mechanisms. However, both methods are structurally expensive whilst the fact that the machine is bound to the row does not change.
It is, therefore, the aim of the invention to create a machine for the harvesting and chopping-up of maize or similar stalk-type harvests which can operate independent of the distances between the rows and the direction of the rows, i.e. a machine which can also be used for broadcast harvests (comparable to a harvester-thresher for grain). The machine must furthermore be able to pick up broken harvests, eg. flattened maize, without problems.
In order to achieve this aim the machine of the kind described and where in the direction of travel one or more rotating drawing-in and moving devices with in each instance several adjacent individual cutting widths formed by cutting points distributed over the front working range, are provided in front of the chaff-blower with feed rollers and at least the drawing-in and mowing devices positioned closest to the feed rollers at the same time form the transfer element for the cut harvested material fed in by the cutting points positioned further away from the feed rollers.
Particularly advantageous is a design of the cutting devices of the machine wherein the bottom peripheral edge of the rotating elements need no longer be machined, the precision adjustment at the support between the rotating elements with the cutting blades and the stationary counterblades falls away, and because there are no stationary counterblades the maintenance required during operation is practically zero, seeing that the mowing blades which rotate at a high speed in the manner of a rotary mower and cut or hit off the stalks of the harvested material in a clean manner, have a long service life.
Further features and details of this embodiment of the invention, in particular with regard to the obtaining of different cutting lengths, defined according to place and time, and in connection with the relation between the speed of travel of the machine, the peripheral speed of the rotating elements and the frequency of the rotor blades, are disclosed.
As was furthermore ascertained, this embodiment of the cutting devices according to the invention also renders possible an overall constructionally simplified design of the machine. It is, as a matter of fact, quite possible to increase the diameter of the rotating elements so considerably that the machine can be constructed with only two drawing-in and mowing devices provided in front of the feed rollers of the chaff blower, without reducing the overall operating width of the machine. Also a design with only one large drawing-in and mowing device, determining the overall operating width of the machine, is possible. A special advantage in this connection is that it is possible to provide an overhead drive for the rotating elements on the one hand and the mowing blades on the other hand, resulting in an overall reduction of the ground clearance of the machine.
In the following the subject of the invention will be explained in greater detail with reference to a drawing which diagrammatically illustrates two exemplified embodiments.